Tag Archive - Action-Reaction Cycle

Controlling the Element of Time in Your Novel

Time is a slippery thing. And because of that, it poses an intriguing challenge for fiction writers.

We need to control the pacing in our stories, and one great way to do that is to manipulate time.

There are various techniques writers use to do this when it comes to “speed.” We can create beats or pauses by having action come to a halt and our characters noticing normally ignored things around them: a shift in the weather, a ticking clock, a bird circling.

We infuse beats when we want our character and our reader to process something. (This is all part of the action-reaction cycle that is so crucial to understand). Scene and chapter breaks also gives readers opportunity to take a breath and process.

In a movie there are all kinds of techniques the director and film editor can use to speed time up and slow time down. But I want to talk not just about the speed at which time can move but also the quality of time.

If that seems like an esoteric concept, it is. But I bet you can think of instances or moments when time has felt different. Not just when it slows way down (like when you’ve had an accident or when you’re waiting for a doctor to come into the exam room with your test results ) or speeds up (getting old, in general) but when it feels different. Do you have any idea of what I’m referring to? Continue Reading…

Utilize the Power of Breath Units to Write Masterfully

You may not have heard of breath units. In fact, if you Google this term, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any information on it.

Breath units are simply the number of words spoken in one breath.

Why should you care?

Because your writing style is all about breath units.

Your genre determines the kinds of breath units a writer should use.

You’ll notice this blog post, so far, is very similar to many blog posts you’ve read before.

These breath units are short.

For the most part.

And that’s because blog posts tend to share small bits of useful (one hopes) information. Continue Reading…

The Key to Creating a Wholly Believable Character

Last week I talked about the natural action-reaction cycle that’s such an important issue in fiction writing. So many manuscripts I critique are missing key reactions from characters. This oversight—and I believe that’s what usually causes this problem—is similar to scenes lacking appropriate description of setting or characters.

Writers see their scenes in their heads, and often while attempting to get all the many details down and locked in, they fail to pay attention to these nuances and trimmings. Yes, it’s often easier to come back later and fill those in—bring in sensory elements and the touches of description that help bring a scene to life.

And writers can certainly add in those needed reactions as well. So long as they can spot what’s missing.

While a lack of description details can be easy to spot and subsequently provide, if a writer doesn’t really get the natural flow of action-reaction, he won’t know it’s missing. Or know how to insert it so it’s believable. Continue Reading…

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